You Can't Hate Government and Love the Constitution

It's probably a fool's errand to make attempts at parsing the paranoid, hysterical rhetoric that's been flying around in the healthcare debate, but that's never stopped me before.  So, I'm watching the fun on C-SPAN this afternoon.  Listening to some of the "against" calls, I noticed something that I probably should have noticed before, which is this: The bizarre dichotomy of professing your undying love for the Constitution, while breathlessly spewing venom at the fundamental evil of the government.

Folks, I have to tell you that I love you very much for your dogged support of the Constitution.  I'm with you.  I believe that it's been a net positive for humanity despite its flaws, which in many cases have been adjusted over the years in a manner that, I would contend, has been largely for the better.  Through our history, we've righted some serious wrongs by broadening and deepening our commitment to the ideas that are embedded in that oft referred to document.  And we may yet have some way to go in that respect.

However, it should be noted that the one thing the Constitution does, first and foremost, is establish a government.  I must say that the people who cling tenaciously to the Constitution while hurling invective at the very institution that the document creates have perhaps missed the point.

Don't get me wrong.  It's perfectly valid to criticize that institution and its operations.  Not only is it valid, but it's necessary for the health of the system in my opinion.  However, that's a debate that acknowledges the question of whether or not to have a government at all as settled.  We can disagree with specific things that the government does, but that's different than attacking the very notion of government itself.

Now, you could be a bona fide anti-statist.  Hey, that's fine.  You're entitled to that point of view.  However, you can't be an anti-statist and claim allegiance to the Constitution at the same time.  It's fundamentally nonsenscial.  The Constitution establishes a state government.  If you really believe that the state is fundamentally evil, then the Constitution is the bane of your existence.

And this goes for people who make silly claims like it's un-Constitutional to pass a healthcare reform bill.  If you're referring to the Constitution that I know and love, then you know that Article I gets the party started by establishing a legislative body and describing how that body will be selected and proceed.  Well, that body is using the power vested in it by Article I to pass law.  Again, you could be somebody who fundamentally disagrees with this scenario or the power of legislators to legislate, but their doing so is anything but un-Constitutional.

And lest we think that the people who make this argument are just random callers into C-SPAN, I listened to a Republican member of the House again invoke the notion that a healthcare reform bill is un-Constitutional as I typed that last paragraph.

In closing, I would go one further and put it that fundamental hatred of the government is un-American.  America is nothing if not a state.  Again, you're perfectly entitled to hold the idea of state in question, but debating how that state should function and whether or not there should even be a state are different things.  I'm fine with having both debates, but it's either terribly erroneous or perhaps even disingenuous to confuse the two.  And that confusion seems to underline a sense of alienation from government rather than ownership of it.